Fantastique!

During our first few weeks back at school, students shared their French experiences from this summer. A lot of students ate French food at home and at local French restaurants and bakeries : croisssants, baguettes, pain au chocolat, croque monsieur, frites, omelettes, ... An 8th Age boy told us that he saw Monet's painting "Japanese Bridge" in his hotel room while on vacation. Quite a few students heard French-speaking people here in Baltimore as well as in Washington D.C., Florida, California, Pennsylvania, and Maine - at the pool, on a boat, at the beach, at a restaurant, and in a museum. Some of our Calvert families traveled to Montreal and Quebec this summer and were able to speak French at restaurants, hotels, and other places that they visited. In addition, many Calvert families went to France this summer - climbed the Eiffel Tower, went to the Louvre, saw Notre Dame, ate in restaurants and cafés, spent time in the Louvre went to the Palace of Versailles, visited Monet's garden in Giverny, - all speaking some French along the way.
What a fantastique, full-of-French summer!!

Monet Masterpieces

This week, French Club members had fun creating their own Monet masterpieces. After drying, each painting was mounted on blue or purple paper and taken home to enjoy.

Encore!

The 9th Age classes and the Chorus Club performed "A la Claire Fontaine", a traditional French Canadian song, this morning for students and faculty at the Lower School Awards Assembly . This was so beautifully sung that it brought a few tears to audience members. Listen and enjoy.

Here are the words:

À la claire fontaine,
M’en allant promener,
J’ai trouvé l’eau si belle
Que je m’y suis baigné.

Il y a longtemps que je t’aime
Jamais je ne t’oublierai.

Sous les feuilles d’un chêne,
Je me suis fait sécher
Sur la plus haute branche,
Un rossignol chantait.

Il y a longtemps que je t’aime
Jamais je ne t’oubierai.

Restaurant Début

After lots of preparation and teamwork, 9th Age students opened their French restaurants to fellow 9th Agers. Each pair of students created the name of their restaurant; made menus with French food, drinks, and prices in euros; brought in restaurant props from home; and took turns being the waiters, waitresses, and customers, all the while saying everything in French. Bon Appétit!

Joie de Jardin

7th Agers enjoyed a beautiful afternoon in one of Calvert's gardens searching high and low for nature items labeled in French. Students then drew pictures of what they found next to the French words on their paper.

What Do 9th Agers Know?

9th Agers know a lot of French! Here are the topics that we have worked on this year:

Clothing vocabulary
Describing people and things
Describing ourselves: what we look like, where we live, our likes and dislikes, our age, ...
School subjects
Poem: C'est l'Automne
French artist Georges Seurat
Transportation
Places in a town
New songs: C'est l'Halloween, A la Claire Fontaine
Food and drinks
French cuisine
Similarities and differences between French and American customs: eating, manners, meals,...
Restaurant vocabulary: how to read a menu, order, ask for the check, use euros, ...
Fun classroom projects: Ma Ville Imaginare, Mon Restaurant Francais

9th Agers also brought in a lot of French items from home to show their classmates: French perfume, soap, intructions to games and machines, clothing labels, candy, coffee, shopping bags, cheese, food boxes, chef hats and aprons, postcards, music, words in books... incroyable how much French is all around us if you know where to look!

It has been a lot of fun! Next year in 10th Age will be fantastique!

What do 7th Agers Know?

7th Agers have really been zipping along in French this year. This is what 7th Agers know:

Weather Expressions
How to count from 1 to 60
Days of the week
Months of the year
The four seasons
How to say the day's date
Classroom vocabulary
Songs: Le Facteur; Un, Deux, Trois, Allons Dans les Bois; C'est le Printemps
Poem: Chere Maman
Animals
I like, I don't like
Table setting vocabulary
Mardi Gras customs
Nature vocabulary
French artist Claude Monet and his garden

And, of course, 7th Agers continued to use what they learned in Pilot and 6th Age: greetings, colors, body parts, songs, ...

7th Agers have also been very excited to share their knowledge of French learned outside of the classroom by bringing in French books, dolls, postcards, berets, movies; telling stories about going to French restaurants and bakeries in town; hearing people speak French in town and while on vacation; telling about family members speaking French; traveling to French-speaking places; going to Baltimore museums and seeing French artists that we've talked about in class, ...
It's been fun to hear about all of the French that these students encounter outside of school.

I can't wait to see what you can do in the 8th Age next year!